


Determination

by Iamthesmileyface



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Blind Character, Blind Ling, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8481685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamthesmileyface/pseuds/Iamthesmileyface
Summary: How does a blind teen end up leading a nation?





	1. Chapter 1

Whispers spread around the large city like wildfire. Lady Liling, the daughter of the chief and the Emperor's concubine, had taken to her childbed four weeks early, and although the baby had been born healthy enough, the Lady Liling had been sickly since. Two days after the birth of the little prince, Lady Liling passed, and the Yao clan mourned. The child was named Ling, in her honor.  
A month later, the Yao clan suffered another blow; young Prince Ling was revealed to be blind.  
  
Ever since he was small, Ling had heard the whispers of the courtiers. The more kind ones worried that a blind prince was at more risk of being assassinated, and the crueler ones scoffed at the idea that a blind prince would ever be considered a suitable candidate for the throne. Ling hated these whispers, hated being thought of as lesser just because he couldn't see. His grandfather, the chief, had given him a teacher when he was three, one who instructed him in the ways of qi-sensing and the Dragon Pulse. He didn't need sight to be a good prince! So, when he turned seven, he asked his grandfather to get him a tutor, one who would teach him martial arts.  
His grandfather had refused him outright.  
Ling kicked at the ground, frustrated. Why couldn't Grandfather _see_? He was just as good as other kids, and the kids of other people in the palace were learning to fight! He was so absorbed in his sulking that he didn't even notice someone's footsteps tapping on the stone walkway.  
"Who are you?" A girl's voice asked from directly behind him. He jumped, whirling around clumsily. "Who's there?" He demanded. As he turned the girl gasped and when she spoke again, her voice came from lower. 'She must have bowed,' he thought.  
"Forgive me, my lord prince! I - I didn't recognize you!"  
"Who are you?" Ling asked. Her voice didn't sound familiar.  
"My name is Lan Fan, my lord." She said, sounding nervous.  
"Fan? Like old man Fu?"  
There was a rustle of cloth, then a hasty "yes, my lord. He's my grandfather." Ling relaxed. Old Man Fu was one of his bodyguards, and the only one that didn't treat him like he was stupid or weak because he was blind.  
"Nice to meet you, Lan Fan." He said politely. It was a minute or two before either of them spoke again, the silence filled with the soft sound of cloth moving against skin. She was figeting, he realized.  
"What are you doing here?" She blurted finally.  
Ling scowled. "My grandfather won't let me learn how to fight."  
"Because you can't see?" Ling nodded. "That's dumb." There was the sound of skin slapping against skin, quickly followed by a stream of muffled, panicked apologies.  
Ling snorted. "It is dumb. I can use the Dragon Pulse to see people, that's all I really _n_ _eed_  to fight!"  
Lan Fan's next words were less muffled, but far more hesitant. "You could...you could ask my grandfather. He's the one teaching me to fight."  
Ling tilted his head, considering. That wasn't a bad idea.  
  
When Ling asked Old Man Fu, the bodyguard reluctantly agreed, and Ling began training alongside his future bodyguard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of an adventure

Amestris, Ling was coming to realize, was an almost terrifyingly confusing place. Between the strange energy in the ground, the odd smells, and the foreign language surrounding him, it was all too easy to get turned around. Put simply, Ling was lost. Lan Fan and Old Man Fu were...somewhere in this place, he knew that much. This was the problem with bodyguards who could disguise their qi, he mused. He wandered aimlessly through the dusty streets of an exceedingly crowded and loud...city? Town? Village? Who knew. There was a sharp bite of pain that jolted up his leg, and he shrieked, entirely undignified, as he felt himself pinwheeling down. He landed with a hearty  _ smack _ and groaned. When he tried to get up, he felt a person approach,  _ very quickly _ . They made to jump over him, and he flattened himself against the ground. Almost as soon as the rush of air had passed with the runner, he scrambled backwards, locating a small alley in blessedly short time. After three attempts to leave his alley that all ended in an unseemly backwards scramble, he gave up. The ground was sun-warmed, and he felt a bit lightheaded. He wondered when he had eaten last. Didn’t matter. He was warm, and well, what was the harm in just laying here for a bit longer?

He nearly shrieked when he was lifted from his slumber and the ground by something  _ with no qi. _ The conversation he overheard was almost stranger, talk of stray cats and, wait, did that person just say to  _ put him back?! _

Ling was quick to change his mind about the strangers, however. “That was delicious! You guys saved my life!” He said, feeling much better now that he had eaten.

The angry foreigner muttered something that he didn’t quite catch, but it sounded derisive. Ling brushed it off with a grin and an offhand comment. He was taken aback a moment later when something in his comment caused the angry foreigner to explode at him, but he didn’t let it show.

“To be so cared for in a foreign country...I’m very thankful.” He continued.

The person(?) without qi spoke then, and it took every bit of court training Ling had ever had not to startle visibly. “You’re a foreigner?”

“Yep! I came from Xing!” He exclaimed cheerily, facing their direction with a wide grin.

“You must really love to travel, then!” Said the angry foreigner (he really had to get some names soon, referring to them as ‘the angry foreigner’ and ‘the person without qi’ was getting pretty tiresome) as the other murmured something awed.

“Wasn’t it hard to cross the desert?” The qi-less one asked.

“Yeah, that desert was hellish.” He laughed, grabbing at a stick he’d nearly tripped over before he’d eaten. “There used to be a railroad, but it got covered by the sand.” He moved the stick through the dirt, hoping his diagram was legible. “I swapped between horses and camels, and passed through the Xerxes ruins.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to use the sea route?” The qi-less person asked. “Longer, of course, but easier.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but I wanted to see the Xerxes ruins first.” He said, smiling a bit at his own joke. 

“Xerxes...I heard there was nothing there.” The angry one said, and the qi-less one added on  something about a legend. Ling couldn’t help but agree, there had only been a band of Ishvalans and a couple huge stones buried in the sands.

“So, you’re a tourist?” The angry one asked.

“Nope! I’m here to search for something. I wanted to investigate this country’s alkahestry.”

“Alkahestry?” The angry one asked, whose name Ling  _ really _ needed to get. He didn’t sound very angry now, after all.

“Oh, right! You call it alchemy here. In my homeland, it was developed as a medical practice. It’s a scientific technique here, right?” Ling said.

The angry one and the qi-less one confirmed this, and, unknowingly, helpfully outlined the political landscape of Amestris. Apparently their ruler used alchemy in the military, that could be a problem if Xing ever had issues with them.

As they talked, Ling was relieved to find that Old Man Fu and Lan Fan had found him, making their qi visible to him for a split second.

He focused back in on the conversation just in time to hear the qi-less one say something about wanting to know about alkahestry.

“Oh, yeah, I’m interested in that. Alchemy used for medical purposes!” The angry one said, the wood of his chair creaking as he leaned forward.

“Ah! Are you two alchemists, by chance?” Ling asked, grinning.

“Yep! I’m Edward Elric, a state alchemist.” The ang --  _ Edward _ said.

“I’m Alphonse Elric, his little brother.”

Ling stood. “State approved! I’m so lucky to have met such knowledgeable people!” He reached out his hand, and the other two grasped it in an odd three-way handshake. “I’m Ling Yao, nice to meet you!”

“Well then, can you tell me more about this alkahestry thing?” Edward asked. Ling sat down again.

“Nope! I’m not an alchemist.” He said, his grin widening at the outraged noises the other made,

“Why are you looking into our alchemy if you’re not an alchemist?” Edward demanded, his qi practically oozing anger.

“I’m looking for something.” Ling leaned against the table. “Maybe you guys have heard of it. It’s called the Philosopher’s stone.” As soon as Ling mentioned the stone, Edward’s qi practically boiled over with shock, confusion, alarm, and suspicion. Ling opened his useless eyes, staring in their direction. “Do you know about it? It’s only, I want it very badly.”

Edward’s chair scraped backwards as he stood. “Nah. Never heard of it.” His voice was carefully controlled, none of the emotion flashing through his qi peeking through. “We’ve got no more business with each other, right? See ya.”

“Oops, wait a minute there.” Ling snapped his fingers. Lan Fan and Old Man Fu slipped out of the shadows, Fu taking on Alphonse and Lan Fan holding one of her kunai to Edward’s throat. “It seems that you  _ do _ know something about it.” He said, ignoring the sharp gasps from the Amestrians. Ling closed his eyes, relaxing. “Can you tell me about it?”

“What do you want with the Philosopher’s Stone?” Edward asked, remarkably cool-headed for someone with a blade at his neck.

“To find the way to gain immortality.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just fyi, this is NOT going to be just a canon retelling! I'm going to do maybe one or two more canon scenes, then it's all mine. Mostly because you probably all know what happened in canon, and partly because rewriting canon scenes is hard af

**Author's Note:**

> Turns out I am absolutely terrible at finishing fics before I start new ones.  
> This is gonna be a short chaptered series that will act as a bit of a prequel for something I'm writing now.


End file.
